Death Ride

Prologue - Part 7

Everyone else started saying their hellos, nice to meet yous, that sort of stuff. I'm not one for socializing, out of costume anyways. So I just hung back and observed. At another nearby table was a group that seemed rather scholarly. Leave it to Sean to bring attention to them. "Hey! How about you guys?!! What are your names?" he shouted across the room as he waved to the group.

The one guy, a purple haired male in a nice black suit, jumped up and pointed at Sean. "Question time! Which of the following is true: A. My name is Kaito Arakaki, B. I'm the Ultimate Game Show Host, or C. I'm pleased to meet you!" he grinned, waiting for Sean to respond.

"Uhhhhh... A? No wait.... B?" Sean asked, looking rather puzzled. He really wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed. But the other male just smiled. "BZZZZT! Trick question! The answer is D. All of the above! I am in fact Kaito Arakaki, the Ultimate Game Show Host and I am very pleased to meet you!" he said rather loudly. This guy definitely had the personality to be on TV and run a game show.

A brunette with glasses sitting near Kaito immediately perked up at the mention of game shows. "Did you know that you can hear a blue whale's heart beat from more than 2 miles away? How about this one: Did you know 700 grapes go into one bottle of wine?" she said happily. Everyone in the room just kind of stared at her. Because no, obviously we didn't know these facts. She held her finger straight out in front of her. "This is an important one: I'm Manami Fukuyama, the Ultimate Trivia Master, and it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Kaito's jaw dropped and he stared at her. I think this guy just fell in love at first sight. He immediately started shaking her hand. "It is so nice to meet you Miss Fukuyama! I would love to hear more interesting facts!" he said, completely transfixed on Manami. There were only a few people left in the room that hadn't introduced themselves yet. Sitting a little ways away was a purple haired girl who was laying with her head on the table. Was she... sleeping? All of a sudden her head shot up. "I'm awake! I'm awake! I'm cracking the code!" she said in a panic. Then she took a look around the room, and became rather confused. "Wait... where's my laptop?! I've got too much code to crack!"

Sean stepped a bit closer to her while waving. "Code to crack? Ya one of them hackers or somethin'?" he asked, a confused tone in his voice. The girl immediately turned to look at him through her thick rimmed glasses. "One of them hackers? I am THE hacker. Nanako Fujita, Ultimate Hacker at your service. Do you have any snacks?" she asked Sean, to which he simply shook his head in reply. "I dunno where we are... Nanako? That right?" he asked as she nodded in reply. "I'm sure there's a kitchen here somewhere, let's all look around in a bit." But she didn't even hear that, because Nanako had fallen back asleep.

Sitting a little further down the table was a guy in a tan trench coat. His long white hair was falling over his face as he stared down at a small notebook in front of him. He was muttering to himself, though we weren't sure about what, so Sean and I got a bit closer. "Hmmmm... if we implement these measures...crime would reduce by 60%... or if we change this... then this would go down..." he quietly muttered to himself. He must have heard us coming over, because he jumped a little and looked up from the notebook at us through his large circular glasses. "Oh, hello there, you startled me. I'm just thinking about changes we can implement to reduce the crime rates in the country. I'm Takuya Nakashima, the Ultimate Criminologist, pleasure to meet you." he said before almost immediately putting all of his attention back on the notebook.

We didn't bother sticking around to be ignored.